Saying Good Things About Airlines

Whilst in the US earlier this week, I was being taken to the airport in one of those hotel shuttle buses. One of the people in the bus was a pilot from Southwest Airlines who, being in uniform, was being asked all sorts of questions by another passenger.
If this had occurred in the UK and he flew for Ryanair or British Airways to name but two, he might have been subjected to complaints but not here.
As many of you will know, Southwest Airlines is the no-frills airline that Ryanair, easyJet and just about every other no-frills airline in the world copies since they have been profitable and very popular for much of their life. One of the reasons for that popularity has been their customer service, satisfaction and staff loyalty. And didn’t it show on this occasion.
He was positively proud of what Southwest did and was pointing out how much the passengers might save now that they had signed a codeshare with Westjet in Canada. Canadian domestic fares are quite expensive so much so that some Canadians travel to Buffalo just across the Canadian border to catch US domestic flights, and to Bellingham in Washington state to save on the high fares out of Vancouver. The passengers were praising Southwest and couldn’t wait for the codeshare. Anything rather than travelling on Air Canada they said. Whether this was fair or not, I cannot say. What was obvious was that Southwest, by the way they treat their staff, had turned this pilot into a salesman. He was promoting his airline- because that is how he saw it-, comfortable in the fact that not only was he telling the truth about it but that the future passengers would not be let down by the hype of sales people.
Would that that happenened over here?